The invention relates to a transport device comprising a rotary object carrier which comprises object carrier elements that are arranged so as to be distributed around the circumference and on which objects are arranged which are transported on a circular movement path from work station to work station of a production facility. Furthermore, the invention relates to a production facility for producing products, in particular containers filled with a medical product, comprising such a transport device. Furthermore, the invention relates to a method for transporting objects from work station to work station of a production facility.
In production facilities for producing products, rotary tables, which are also referred to as rotating work tables or rotary indexing tables, are used for transporting the products from work station to work station. The known rotary indexing tables comprise a circular object carrier that can turn about a vertical axis. The object carrier is driven by a drive unit. During production, the object carrier turns in steps in individual cycles either clockwise or anticlockwise. The work stations are distributed circumferentially around the object carrier. The objects to be processed are positioned on the object carrier in a manner distributed circumferentially. As a result of the object carrier turning, the objects can be transported from work station to work station. The work stations each perform a work process on the objects, which process may include one or more production steps. The objects can be arranged on the object carrier in object carrier elements which receive one or more objects. The objects can be products to be produced (goods) or workpieces or test objects to be machined.
The known rotary indexing tables have an object carrier on which the object carrier elements are arranged immovably relative to one another. They are secured circumferentially on the object carrier at predefined distances. In conjunction with the stationary work stations, the object carrier elements are moved into the appropriate position opposite each work station purely by the object carrier turning. The object carrier elements have to remain at the stations until the work station has completed the work process.
Production facilities generally have work stations having different process times. In the process, the step-by-step turning of the object carrier is substantially defined by the duration of the longest process. Since the object carrier remains still during a work process having a long process time, and owing to the predefined distances between the object carrier elements and the step-by-step turning of the object carrier through a predefined angle of rotation, a separate work station is required for processing each object, even for the work processes having the short process times. However, said work stations are only in use for a short time, which entails high investment and running costs and is inefficient. Moreover, as the number of work stations increases, so too does the likelihood that the production facility will break down. Production facilities of this type are characterised by high complexity and a lack of access to the components.
If the production method comprises work processes having different process times, for the above reasons it is an advantage to use a transport device in which the arrangement of the object carrier and the object carrier elements is not rigid, so that some object carrier elements can remain at work stations having a long process time, whilst other object carrier elements can be transported from work station to work station.
Rotary feedthroughs are known for transferring media, for example fluids or gases, which have a stationary component and a rotary component. The stationary component has a media input and the rotary component has a media output. In the stationary component, an axial channel is formed leading to a radial bore which is sealed off from an annular gap formed in the rotary component. The sealing surfaces of the stationary and the rotary component are sealed by means of known sliding or rotary seals. In order to transfer a plurality of fluids, multichannel rotary feedthroughs are also known in which a plurality of axial channels are formed in the stationary component, which channels each have a radial bore, a plurality of annular gaps being formed in the rotary component. The multi-channel rotary feedthroughs are characterised, however, by only a single rotary component.